The Luck of the Draw
by tinx-r
Summary: It's easier to make it through the night, if you're not alone... 1972, Vietnam


The Luck of the Draw

Nick tossed his hand to the table and watched the blond laughingly scrape the pile of IOUs to his side. Cody was winning tonight, lady luck being kind to him or his college education finally counting for something, Nick wasn't sure which.

His own attention was wandering, his bids random, his throw-outs wild, but then 5 card draw had never been his thing. The rest of the guys were shooting shit, loud and laughing, but Nick found himself, time and again, looking at Cody through the haze of cigarette smoke.

The kid was too young to be over here. Nick couldn't get past that idea, even though Cody'd told him his DOB. Even though Cody was older than Nick by nearly a year. He was different, and it made Nick angry that the army hadn't seen that, that they'd let him come here, so young and perfect, where Nick would have to see him die.

He'd cheated death once already, on the doomed patrol last week, and Nick was still sure that he'd only got through himself out of sheer determination not to leave Cody alone out there.

"Ryder, them cards ain't playing themselves." The harsh voice of the dealer called Nick back to reality and he started, flushing, tearing his eyes away from Cody. His new hand lay on the table in front of him and he grabbed it up, staring at the cards in confusion. Red picture cards... for a moment he thought he'd been dealt a royal flush then saw the Jack of Hearts proud amidst his diamonds and laughed aloud.

"Gimme 4, Beeb," he told the dealer, grinning and fumbling for his cigarettes. "They say people get out of the way of crazies, am I right?"

"What I know, Ryder, I ain't gettin' in the way of your losing streak," the soldier dealing told him as he riffled four cards his way. "Further'n that, you'll have to ask Charley, an' you make sure you give him my regards when you do."

Nick flipped him the bird and picked up his replacements. Retorts went on round the table as the other players called for cards and Nick sorted his slowly. He'd been dealt another jack giving him a pair and nothing more. At this rate he'd be buying the drinks till his tour was over.

"Two, please." Cody's voice, smooth and low, wrenched his thoughts back from the cards, his eyes back to the other side of the table. Cody was looking down at his cards, intent, concentrating, and he raised a hand to his forehead, as though to brush back hair that wasn't there.

Nick swallowed hard. Cody wore his hair long in civilian life. It'd suit him, Nick thought, looking at his friend's lean, square jaw. Right now with his short military cut he looked exposed, vulnerable. Too young for war.

Patrol was routine, controlled terror, the kind of boredom that only soldiers know. Every nerve on fire, listening past the bounds of hearing for the enemy that didn't come. Nick made sure he rode with Cody, an easy switch after the losses last week. Guys were still shaking down, and no-one questioned which Jeep Nick swung aboard.

Cody handled the vehicle like he knew what he was doing, riding the ruts on the trail, driving her straight through the wet swampy patches, He seemed to know by instinct not to swerve to what looked like better ground - almost certainly VC booby traps - and the Jeep didn't slide and bounce the way it did when Nick took the wheel himself.

"Anyone'd think you'd done this before," Nick commented when they'd reached the outer boundary and turned for camp. So far, this side had been safe, and he allowed himself to breathe a little deeper.

"Done quite a bit of offroad driving," Cody said with a wry grin. "Never figured on it coming in so handy."

"Yeah? You race?"

"No, but we moved east when I was 16. I - it's a long story, but my parents signed me up for an off-road driving school as a sort of bribe. I thought I'd hate it." Cody shot Nick a grin. "Turns out, it was the only part of Connecticut I could stomach."

Nick was just thinking they'd made it when a commotion behind them proved him wrong. The roar of a landmine, the screech of tearing metal and this time the Jeep was sliding, stopping square on the trail. Nick was out before it stopped moving, his training doing his thinking for him, and he was on the ground in 6 inches of chilly swamp before his brain kicked in.

"Cody!" he hissed, terror and sickness warring in his gut.

"Here." Cody moved and Nick saw him, under the Jeep too, not 6 inches away, and the wave of relief left him light-headed. He crept closer, slow small movements like he'd been taught, until his shoulder pressed against Cody's. Together they peered from under the Jeep, weapons at the ready, searching for a target.

The only good part, Nick thought tiredly as he peeled himself out of his soaked, mud-plastered fatigues, was that there'd miraculously been no casualties from the surprise attack. They'd left two Jeeps overturned and mangled on the trail but the guys had all got clear somehow. Like sometimes happened Charley hadn't followed up and the rounds they'd sent into the jungle hadn't been returned.

Maybe it had simply been a booby trap, a warning. It didn't pay to think too much about how easy it was to die out here.

He stepped under the shower, lukewarm but luxury, and shot a glance at Cody, sluicing himself under the showerhead next door. Cody grinned back at him shyly, twisting and turning under the thin stream of water, and Nick looked away quickly. Too fucking beautiful to live.

Sleep came slow, worn out though Nick was. He couldn't stop listening to the soft breathing from the next bunk, Cody's breathing. He flinched when the guy on his other side started snoring, drowning out the soft sound, and didn't relax until the creaking of the cot heralded the guy turning over and the snores ceased.

He went back to listening, all night, even when sleep finally claimed him, and he woke before dawn with the terrible sense that something was wrong.

The soldier beside him was snoring again and Nick raised himself on his elbow, peering through the dark. Cody's cot was empty, blanket folded neatly on the end, and Nick was on his feet without conscious thought.

He didn't stop to lace his boots, just pulled them on over his bare feet and started moving. Outside it was dark and quiet in the way only the jungle knew how to be, the quiet of age-old menace waiting, claws unsheathed.

Nick shivered, looking, wondering. By the makeshift stockade he heard a rustle as the sentries moved about, and he turned away. Something told him Cody hadn't come outside for company.

It was a short walk to the choppers, cold and silent hulks against the sky, and as Nick came up to the first of the snub-nosed Hueys he hesitated. He'd come here by instinct, feet taking the path his own troubled thoughts took him, but Cody wouldn't seek for peace amidst the metal birds.

Nick rested his hand on the cool skin of the Huey's tail, breathing deep. Something about the kid had him by the throat and wouldn't let go, that was all he knew. Something in those scared blue eyes, the same scared as every sane soldier in South East Asia; but different. Whatever lived in Cody's eyes touched Nick deep in ways he'd never known to dream of. And Nick couldn't let that die.

The grass rustled near the hold and Nick froze. Sometimes he thought the whole damned jungle slithered. He peered through the dark, but instead of a snake saw a bulkier shadow on the ground. Someone was there.

"Cody?" he breathed, heart beating fast, and the shadow jerked.

"Who's there?" Cody's voice, strained and breathless, came from beside the chopper.

"It's Nick, man." Nick moved forward slowly, close enough for reassurance, far enough for privacy. "Am I interrupting?"

"No." Cody chuckled unsteadily. "No. Couldn't sleep, is all. Came out to watch the stars... that's what I do, when I can't sleep, you know?"

Nick looked up. The oppressive tropical sky was thick and cloudy, and only a pinprick of light showed through, here and there. He looked back at Cody.

"Yeah," Cody said shortly. "I didn't figure on the sky here."

"Not going so well, then, huh?" Nick looked down at Cody and Cody shrugged, teeth gleaming in what Nick thought was a grin. He took it as an invitation and sat down carefully in the grass, next to Cody, and leant back against the chopper. He could feel the warmth of Cody's skin just inches away.

"It's not California, that's for sure," Cody said slowly, and Nick heard the break in his voice.

He reached out and rested a hand on Cody's leg, feeling his warmth through his fatigues. "Not Connecticut, either," he said quietly.

Cody took a deep breath and shifted, bringing his bare shoulder into contact with Nick's. "That's one point in its favor," he said in a low voice, and Nick left his hand on his friend's leg. He'd thought from the start this guy was running from more than the girl that dumped him.

"It's got a lot going for it, this jungle."

"Like what?" Cody's tone lightened and he leaned a little heavier on Nick's shoulder. "Anti-personnel mines?"

"You gotta admit, they have their uses. Landscaping, now. Dunno how many of those cutesy garden gnomes you could exterminate with a well placed mine, but I'd bet a good six or seven." Cody giggled softly and Nick squeezed his leg. "And leeches. They've been used in medicine for thousands of - "

"You hate leeches." Cody sounded well amused and Nick grinned.

"I do, true, but I'm maybe just prejudiced on account of one with bigger teeth than usual trying to get up close an' personal with me when I'd only been in-country a week. The leeches gotta understand, I'm not that kinda guy."

"Oh yeah? You like a leech to buy you flowers?"

They both giggled that time, and Nick slung an arm around Cody's shoulders. Tonight, at least, he'd saved his partner from the fear that crawled by night. And tomorrow they'd be one day closer to making it. 


End file.
